Saturday Six – Halloween Edition

This is my friend, Patrick’s little meme, Saturday Six.

1. You have the chance to learn either the date, the location or the method of your death: would you accept an envelope that would contain ONE of the answers to one of those questions if you couldn’t choose which question would be answered?

I don’t think I would. I believe people should live each day making of the most of the time given. Every hour, and every day is precious. Once it’s gone you will never get it back. Knowing how, or when, or where you are going to die is less important than making the decision every day to truly live. Don’t wait until it’s time to die, to try to live. Live now, today.

2. If you could choose to learn the answer to one of those, which would you choose?

Location and method give you clues as to the other. You find out that method is a drunk driver, you’ve got a pretty good idea the location will be in a car. I wouldn’t want to find out I’ve got a particular gruesome or painful death awaiting me. If I found out the location, I would try to cheat it. Say the location was ‘airplane’, I would try to avoid getting near an airplane. Out of all of them, I wouldn’t want to learn the date.

3. Which illness do you fear most?

Alzheimer's. It’s a truly horrible disease. You die before you die. You lose everything that makes you, you. You become a prisoner in your own mind.

4. Which method of death other than illness do you fear most?

Burning. It’s slow and painful, two things I’d really like to avoid.

5. If you could control how you would die, what method would you choose?

Dying peacefully in my sleep with my wife by my side.

6. If you could specify the age at which you die, with reasonable good health assumed, how long would you like to live?

That’s tough. I’d like to live a good long time to be involved in the life of my kids and grandkids and make an impact on the generations to come. Mainly I worry about having enough money to cover my expenses as I get older, and starting to lose people. You get to that point where you know more people in heaven than you do on earth. Rather than specify an age, I’d rather specify that I make each year count in the lives of my wife, my children, my friends, and my community.